‘Who Took Johnny’: The Documentary About The Infamous Cold Case Is Now On Netflix

If you’ve already finished Making a Murdererand are itching for your next true crime drama, this documentary may be for you.

Who Took Johnny, which premiered at the Slamdance festival in 2014 thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, follows the more than thirty year cold case of Johnny Gosch, a twelve-year-old boy who disappeared early in the morning from his West Des Moines, Iowa neighborhood on September 5, 1982 while delivering papers.

A man on foot witnessed Johnny speaking to an unidentified man in a car; when the car quickly sped away Johnny had vanished. The local police did not initially treat Johnny as a missing person or the case as a kidnapping since there were neither witnesses nor demands, instead waiting until the requisite 72 hours had passed to take on the case.

John and Noreen, Johnny’s parents’, were disgruntled by the police and their lack of initiative when it came to the case overall. The town as a whole was too and when Eugene Martin, another paperboy around Johnny’s age, disappeared a couple of years later they came together, with the help of a local dairy, to put both of boys’ faces on milk cartons, thus starting a trend that would continue for many years to come.

Theories of the case — including those involving human trafficking, pedophile rings, and high-powered suspects — trickled in over the years, but lacked any hard evidence. Paul Bonacci, a man who claims involvement in Johnny’s disappearance, pointed the finger at the Franklin credit union, but nothing could ever stick.

The ambiguity of the case, and the possible involvement of powerful people, may be the reason that the police and FBI never fully investigated. The third act of the documentary also showcases a possible clue that came to light years after Johnny’s disappearance.

While the documentary, which was directed by David Beilinson, Suki Hawley, and Michael Galinsky, gives a detailed and intense look at Johnny’s particular case — including interviews with Noreen, striking graphics to aid clarity, and an examination of the effect of the case on the country as a whole — it also makes important statements regarding how the media portrays crime victims, showcases the pain of the parents of missing children, and shines a light on needed changes in police practices.

The film is insightful, heartfelt, and highly emotional. Though it does not have all the answers to Johnny Gosch’s tragic disappearance, it does shed some new found light on a case that changed how missing children cases are handled. Who Took Johnny finally gives the case the spotlight that Noreen Gosch has been fighting for since that fateful day in September of 1982.